The Evolution of Complexity

Why do some species eat others? Life began as microscopic single-celled organisms making their own energy from sunlight and other chemical resources. At some point, some of these creatures found it less effort just to eat their neighbors and acquire the energy they had gone...

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The role of generative entrenchment and robustness in the evolution of complexity

Complexity and the Arrow of Time ◽

10.1017/cbo9781139225700.017 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 308-331 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

W. C. Wimsatt

Keyword(s):

Evolution Of Complexity ◽

Generative Entrenchment

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The microtubule skeleton and the evolution of neuronal complexity in vertebrates

Biological Chemistry ◽

10.1515/hsz-2019-0149 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 400 (9) ◽

pp. 1163-1179 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Nataliya I. Trushina ◽

Armen Y. Mulkidjanian ◽

Roland Brandt

Keyword(s):

Alternative Splicing ◽

Binding Proteins ◽

Neuronal Development ◽

Bioinformatics Analysis ◽

Vertebrate Evolution ◽

Evolution Of Complexity ◽

Evolutionary Changes ◽

The Individual ◽

Clear Increase ◽

Tubulin Structure

Abstract The evolution of a highly developed nervous system is mirrored by the ability of individual neurons to develop increased morphological complexity. As microtubules (MTs) are crucially involved in neuronal development, we tested the hypothesis that the evolution of complexity is driven by an increasing capacity of the MT system for regulated molecular interactions as it may be implemented by a higher number of molecular players and a greater ability of the individual molecules to interact. We performed bioinformatics analysis on different classes of components of the vertebrate neuronal MT cytoskeleton. We show that the number of orthologs of tubulin structure proteins, MT-binding proteins and tubulin-sequestering proteins expanded during vertebrate evolution. We observed that protein diversity of MT-binding and tubulin-sequestering proteins increased by alternative splicing. In addition, we found that regions of the MT-binding protein tau and MAP6 displayed a clear increase in disorder extent during evolution. The data provide evidence that vertebrate evolution is paralleled by gene expansions, changes in alternative splicing and evolution of coding sequences of components of the MT system. The results suggest that in particular evolutionary changes in tubulin-structure proteins, MT-binding proteins and tubulin-sequestering proteins were prominent drivers for the development of increased neuronal complexity.

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